Yuji's Awakening Begins
The sun hung low in the sky, but its heat still poured down in waves. The Desert of Schemes had never known mercy, and Yuji Kazehaya felt every grain of it against his skin. His cloak clung to his sweat-drenched back, sand scratched beneath his boots, and the air shimmered with a heat so heavy it bent the light.
He moved cautiously, retracing his steps from the earlier chaos. The Flame Tiger and the Falcon Beast—those monsters had turned the valley into a graveyard. The cries of the cultivators still echoed in the back of his mind. But now, there was only silence.
A different kind of danger.
Yuji crouched at the edge of the burned-out ridge, scanning the battlefield with narrowed eyes. Blood soaked the sand in patches. Corpses lay scattered—some torn apart, others turned to ash. The Flame Tiger was slumped over a boulder, unmoving. Its body still radiated residual heat, but its chest no longer rose.
Dead.
Yuji's brow furrowed.
"It killed all of them... then what killed it?"
He slid down the ridge, boots digging into the hot sand. Carefully, methodically, he moved from corpse to corpse. Most had been stripped by the heat or beasts, but a few carried supplies untouched.
A satchel hung loosely from one of the fallen cultivators. Yuji opened it. Inside were three food capsules, a scroll with a broken seal, and a strange black orb wrapped in flame-resistant cloth.
The moment his fingers brushed the orb, a pulse ran through his hand.
Darkness.
The world flickered. The sand vanished. The sky turned pitch black.
Yuji stood alone.
Except... he wasn't.
Across from him stood a silhouette, humanoid but shifting—like a shadow caught in a storm. Its eyes burned with a faint violet glow, and its body leaked the same aura Yuji had tried to suppress for years.
His Dark Element.
"What are you?" Yuji whispered.
The shadow tilted its head. "I am what you fear to become."
It raised one arm, mimicking Yuji's stance. Then the vision vanished.
Yuji blinked, falling forward onto his knees. The orb rolled from his palm. Blood dripped from his nose, and his chest ached. He pulled at his shirt, panting—and saw it. Just under his collarbone, faint and barely visible, was a black tattoo. A single curved mark, like a claw or horn, drawn in shadow.
A mark of the Dark.
He didn't have time to process.
A growl tore through the air. Behind him, a beast lunged from the shadows of a half-destroyed tree—a sand-warping reptile, with scales that shimmered between orange and brown. Its tongue flicked rapidly, sensing movement.
Yuji turned instinctively, eyes wide. He raised his arm, and before thought could catch up, he felt it.
His ADM Ring glowed dark.
"Shadow Arrow!"
The words burst from his throat like instinct, and in a flash, a sleek arrow of black energy formed in his palm. It fired, cutting through the wind with a howling whistle. The arrow struck the beast between the eyes, detonating in a shock of shadow.
The creature dropped.
Yuji staggered backward, clutching his chest. Pain flooded his limbs. His nose bled harder, and the mark on his skin pulsed faintly.
But the voices—the maddening whispers he once heard when using Dark Element—they were gone.
No loss of control.
He had used it.
"I... controlled it," he breathed.
Not perfectly. Not without cost. But it was a step forward. A terrifying, thrilling step.
He retrieved the orb and the satchel. Then his eyes drifted toward the other bodies. One held a crumpled piece of leather.
Yuji knelt, pulling it free.
It was a map.
Tattered, drawn in red ink, with markers denoting caves, ridges, and flame pits. One part was circled, drawn with a symbol Yuji didn't recognize. Beneath it was a word scribbled in a dialect he had only seen once:
"Treasure."
His breath caught.
Yuji turned his gaze eastward, toward the distant rocks the map pointed to. The journey wouldn't be short. He folded the map, secured his supplies, and began to run.
The desert stretched endlessly ahead, but he didn't stop. The wind howled. The sun dropped lower. Shadows grew long.
Hours passed.
His boots cracked over dry stone, his lungs burned, and his EB was down to 9. But he didn't slow.
Eventually, he reached it.
A jagged hill of blackened rock, half-buried in the sand. A narrow cave mouth waited near the base—dark, gaping, humming with power. Yuji stepped forward.
And froze.
Inside the cave, coiled in layers of green and silver, was a massive serpent. Its body shimmered like glass under moonlight, and from the center of its forehead blinked a glowing third eye.
It stared directly at him.
Yuji's foot hovered inches from the entrance.
The cave exhaled.
And this moment ended in silence, save for the hiss of a thousand scales shifting in the dark.
---
Forest Trap: Aika vs the Cultivator Squad
The wind in the forest whispered with an edge of cruelty.
Tall blue-green trees twisted toward the sky, their vine-covered trunks glowing faintly in the eternal twilight of the Forbidden Zone. The air here was colder than the desert, but it wasn't the type of chill that bit your skin—it was the kind that crept under your armor and into your blood, making your instincts scream.
Aika Miyawaki ran in silence.
Her blade was strapped to her back, ADM Ring pulsing gently on her finger. Each step over moss and root was calculated. Her heart beat steady, not from calm—but control.
She had sensed it two minutes ago.
> "They're hunting me."
She didn't know who. But she knew the signs. The stillness in the trees. The faint trace of elemental signatures. The way the birds had gone silent.
Someone wanted her supplies.
> EB left: 9.
> Blue Medicine left: 1.
> Energy Boosters: 0.
> Time: Day 2 of 10.
She reached a clearing between ancient trunks and slowed. Her eyes flicked across the clearing. A pool of water shimmered in the middle—beautiful, untouched. The surface was glass-still.
> "No wind. No bugs. No ripples."
Aika didn't smile, but her thoughts sharpened.
> "It's a trap."
She moved around the clearing instead of entering. From the edge, she picked up a rock and lightly tossed it onto the pool.
It floated.
Then—
> SHLK!
Barriers of frost and light erupted from the air above the water, trapping the rock like a fly in amber. Chains of glowing runes spiraled through the pool, locking into place.
> "Light-Barrier Water Trap…"
Only one clan used that hybrid technique: the Celestia Rain Clan.
A whistle cut through the air. Too late.
Aika spun, blade already unsheathed, as a whip of golden energy lashed toward her from behind the trees. She ducked, rolled left, then kicked off a branch and landed with perfect balance.
Voices echoed across the clearing.
> "There she is!"
> "Surround her! Aim for her bag!"
> "She's just one girl—take her down!"
Five cultivators emerged, dressed in layered blue-white robes, each one bearing the mark of the Celestia Rain Clan: a shining raindrop over a crescent moon. Their ADM Rings flashed. Lightning. Light. Water.
> Realm 1. Level 4 to 5. Skilled.
They weren't here to spar.
They were here to loot, eliminate, and move on.
Aika lowered her stance, exhaling once. Mist curled around her mouth. Her voice, soft but deadly:
> "Try it."
The first attacker lunged, lightning bursting from his feet. Aika moved in one elegant step. The man's foot struck where she had been—but her body was already spinning. Her blade met his ribcage.
> CRACK!
His armor froze over, and the impact launched him back into a tree.
Four left.
The next two came together, one launching a spray of holy light spears, the other casting a wave of water from both hands.
Aika gritted her teeth and raised her ADM Ring.
> "Frost Mist: Lotus Screen!"
She stomped the ground and leapt backward. A cloud of shimmering ice mist exploded around her body—blurring her figure and twisting the air. The light spears passed through the fog and struck trees instead. The water veered off course, freezing midair into a net of glistening shards.
> "What the hell is that skill!?" one shouted.
They lost visual. That was all Aika needed.
> "Ice Dash."
She vanished.
Behind the nearest attacker, her boot slammed into his back. He fell with a grunt, his ADM Ring flickering. She landed atop him, twisted his wrist with precision, and yanked free his scroll pouch.
> "Thanks for the gift."
Another man swung his blade toward her—she ducked, slashed at his ankle with an ice-coated strike, and backed off before the counter. Her movements weren't wild or desperate.
They were surgical.
> "She's too fast—!"
> "Group barrier—NOW!"
They formed a ring, raising a team defense. Holy light circled around them in a shimmering sphere.
Aika stood just outside the radius, her eyes narrowing.
> "Cowards."
One of the men grinned. "Smart. We know your stamina won't last. How much EB do you have left, girl?"
Aika didn't reply. Her breath misted again. Inside her body, fatigue gnawed at her muscles. That dash and mist combo drained two EB in under a minute. She couldn't keep this pace forever.
But she didn't need to win.
She just needed to survive.
> "They'll chase me if I run," she whispered. "But not if I make them think they already won."
She turned suddenly—and sprinted into the deeper woods.
The cultivators laughed.
> "HAH! She's scared!"
> "Chase her! Don't let her escape!"
> "Take back the scrolls!"
They followed.
That was their mistake.
Aika led them through twisted roots, icy vines, and branches that glowed faintly in the underbrush. She dipped behind trees, then dashed across a half-frozen stream. Behind her, three of the Celestia Rain attackers followed closely.
The fourth—too slow. He tripped over a frozen vine.
He didn't rise again.
Aika kept running, until she reached a ridge of blue crystal trees, where fog began to thicken around the ground.
She slowed.
> "Perfect."
She opened her palm.
> "Frost Mist: Second Bloom."
The air around her expanded. Mist thicker than smoke erupted into the trees. Visibility dropped to near zero.
The cultivators burst into the clearing seconds later.
> "Where'd she go!?"
> "Dammit, I can't see—!"
Aika crouched in the shadows, not moving. Waiting. Counting her breath. Then, like a ghost—
She moved again.
One down. Blade to the ribs.
Second down. Knee to the throat.
The third turned in time to scream, only to find frost already coating his face.
They all collapsed in the mist.
She exhaled.
> "EB left: 8."
Her hands trembled slightly from the energy drain. But she was alive.
And she had gained.
She rifled through the scrolls of the three fallen attackers. One was a Rare-tier Flame Summon technique. Another held coordinates.
> "A cave…" she muttered. "Marked in red ink."
Her hand froze.
> "This mark… Yuji had something like this once."
Aika stood slowly, staring through the thinning fog.
> "Yuji… where are you right now?"
Her voice was low, not quite a whisper.
She shook the thought away, pocketed the scroll, and limped back into the woods.
> "No time to get sentimental."
But the image lingered—Yuji's grin, the reckless way he ran into danger.
And the silent question she couldn't stop asking:
> "Will I ever see you again?"
The mist swallowed her steps, and the woods went quiet once more.
Only broken trees and frozen blood marked that Aika Miyawaki had been there.
---
Ryen's Gamble: Playing with a Monster
The snow didn't fall like peace.
It fell like ash—slow, silent, and full of warning.
In the northern quadrant of the Forbidden Zone, where icy winds howled through silver pines and the land wore a deathly quiet, Ryen Sylvan crouched beneath a jagged cliff of blue frost, staring through his crystal scope at a beast unlike anything he'd ever catalogued.
It was six meters tall. Bone plates jutted from its back like broken armor. Its skin rippled with scales that reflected moonlight. A bear-like head sat on a neck too long for its frame, and its breath came out as fog—burning frost.
> "So that's the Coldfang Reaper…" Ryen murmured.
The creature lumbered across the snow, its claws dragging a bloodied body—some unfortunate cultivator who hadn't understood the rule of this world:
> "You don't fight a beast you don't understand. You feed it someone else."
Ryen turned slightly, gaze shifting to a group of four cultivators not far behind the Coldfang. They were hiding behind a wall of broken ice, whispering fiercely.
> "Ah… here come the idiots."
He lowered his scope and activated his ADM Ring. 10 EB. Untouched.
He didn't plan on using any.
Instead, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a small vial of Flame Herb Powder—a rare irritant designed to disrupt beast senses and trigger aggressive response.
He smiled.
> "Let's test your hunger, big guy."
He crushed the vial beneath a stone and let the wind carry its scent toward the beast.
Within seconds, the Coldfang Reaper lifted its head.
Its nostrils flared.
It turned sharply—toward the cultivators.
> "Perfect," Ryen whispered.
The hunters had become prey.
The moment the Coldfang charged, the ice wall exploded in a panic of flame shields and lightning bolts. Screams pierced the blizzard wind as the beast tore into them with terrifying speed. One cultivator tried to fly upward using a levitation scroll—he didn't make it more than three meters before the beast's claw crushed his leg midair.
> "Four targets, no coordination," Ryen said calmly, watching the slaughter. "This'll be quick."
He waited. Let time pass. Let the beast finish.
Minutes later, silence returned. The Coldfang wandered off, dragging a body in its jaws, disappearing over the ridge like a ghost fading into mist.
Ryen stood.
> "Showtime."
He walked across the blood-soaked snow without emotion. The bodies weren't intact, but their supplies were scattered.
He moved like a scavenger—but with the precision of a surgeon.
> "Flame Crystals… common tier."
"Two scrolls. One badly burned…"
"This one…"
His eyes paused on a glowing red scroll bound with iron thread. It pulsed softly.
> "Mythical tier," he whispered. "Locked."
The script across the surface was written in a dead language—something used only in ancient Vein Cores. The ADM Ring refused to decrypt it.
> "Needs a blood key or inheritance touch."
He tucked it inside his coat and turned toward the cliff.
No emotion. No thrill.
Just another good day.
> "This world gives you no prizes…" he said to the snow, "unless you take them."
He walked away—leaving the blood, the torn limbs, and the frozen battlefield behind him.
---
Above the Chaos: Mina's Doubt
High above the Forbidden Zone, where the sky thickened with clouds blacker than night, two shadows floated in stillness—unmoving, unseen.
No wings beat. No sound echoed.
They simply watched.
Mina, her long blue hair trailing behind her like the tail of a comet, hovered in silence. Her glowing blue aura flickered faintly as her eyes tracked the boy in the desert far below—Yuji Kazehaya—now sprinting toward a cave with blood on his lips and madness in his eyes.
> "He's accelerating," she whispered. "Even with all the pain… he keeps going."
Beside her stood a figure of absolute stillness—Silas Reign, the god of shadows, the monarch of the forbidden flame. The wind around him didn't dare move. His black cloak hung weightless in the void, and his mask—etched in bone and obsidian—reflected no light.
His voice cracked the silence.
> "He's remembering."
Mina's breath caught. She looked again.
Far below, Yuji's form trembled—his veins glowing faintly, and now, on his chest beneath his shredded tunic, a faint tattoo of twisting shadow had begun to manifest. Like a chain. Or a curse.
> "That mark…" Mina whispered. "It wasn't supposed to show so soon."
She pressed a trembling hand to her chest, her eyes wide.
> "That's a Shadowbind Seal… A real one. That means his soul is—"
> "Fracturing," Silas finished calmly.
He turned his masked face slightly toward her. "Which is exactly what must happen."
Mina's wings dimmed.
> "You knew this would happen. You triggered the orb on purpose."
Silas didn't deny it.
> "The orb is a catalyst. He needed to feel the pain of the seal's awakening. He needed to taste his own power."
Mina clenched her fists. Her voice cracked. "But if it breaks all the way… he'll die. Or worse—"
> "Or," Silas interrupted gently, "he becomes like me."
He turned his head fully now, and though his face was hidden, Mina could feel the smile beneath the mask.
> "And wouldn't that be something?"
Mina said nothing.
Because part of her—the part buried beneath orders, beneath oaths—had begun to tremble. She had seen power. She had seen monsters. But she had also seen hope once. In someone who reminded her of Yuji.
And hope died screaming.
> "You want him as your heir," she said quietly.
> "I want him as my weapon," Silas corrected. "An heir is a luxury. But a weapon? That's necessity."
He looked back down at the cave where Yuji now stood frozen before a massive serpent—its third eye glowing green, its fangs dripping venom that hissed even against stone.
> "Let's see if he survives this encounter. If he does… the next lock will begin to break."
Mina swallowed hard.
> "And if he doesn't?"
Silas didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Because both of them knew the truth: Yuji Kazehaya wasn't meant to survive.
He was meant to awaken—or be broken in the attempt.
---
END OF CHAPTER 18